Central Business District Area Insight

Canal Street divides the French Quarter from the CBD (Central Business District). This area, known as the "American Sector", was established after the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, when American residents wanted their own distinct neighborhood, separate from the European settlers in the French Quarter. Canal Street became the "neutral ground" for doing business by people from both sections of the City.

Originally, there was a plan to dig a canal down the middle of Canal Street but it was scrapped with the construction of the Carondelet (Old Basin) Canal. Throughout most of the 18th Century and early 19th Century, Canal Street was a large green space separating the two halves of New Orleans. Then, in 1860, a group of investors saw the potential of providing public transit from the Mississippi River to Lake Pontchartrain, and in 1861 the Canal Streetcar Line was founded.

The New Orleans Ernest N. Morial Convention Center is the sixth largest event/convention space in the country and has approximately 1.1 million square feet of exhibit space. Annual Mardi Gras Balls are just some of the events that take place here. Future plans are to create a Convention Center District incorporating a 47 acre undeveloped tract of land adjacent to the Convention Center. Good news for the convention business as well as residents of New Orleans.

The Riverwalk mall is currently under a major transformation. It is scheduled to reopen as The Outlet Collection at Riverwalk on May 22, 2014. This outlet mall will be the nation's first downtown outlet center. The mall is located along the Mississippi River waterfront and near other local attractions.

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